Cézanne's Self-Portrait is full of inner tension. In front of us is a man with a strong jutting chin, the bold expression of a sage and a high, bulging, domed forehead. The artist deliberately stresses the spherical shape of the head and the strict lines of the nose and eyebrows, as if trying to make the representation resemble an ancient Eastern relief. In the face he searches for features to demonstrate the superiority of structure over imagery, an idea that became the leitmotif of all his art.